For most of his adult life, the camera has been Hulk Hogan's best friend, capturing him body slamming opponents to the mat in the wrestling ring, spinning, glaring and taunting all who might try to take him on.

But the image of the wrestling star was far less flattering when a grainy sex tape of Hogan in bed with a friend's wife surfaced on Gawker, the popular online media website. When attorneys for Hogan and Gawker clashed over publication of the video, it was perhaps inevitable that it would all be dragged into a courtroom and explode into a nearly over-the-top mash-up of celebrity, sex and constitutionality.

A Florida jury on Friday deliberated just six hours before it awarded Hogan $115 million in damages in a case that claimed he was hurt and humiliated when Gawker showed the tawdry video to the world.